TOUGH CUSTOMER by Sandra Brown
Sandra Brown knows how to write an interesting story. The plot may sometimes be a little contrived as it is in her newest novel TOUGH CUSTOMER but she always gives her readers a lot of bang for the buck. She packs each story with excitement, suspense and lots of passion.
Her latest story concerns a madman who is obsessed with a woman. When he realizes he can’t have her he makes plans to kill her. The woman being stalked is named Berry. She is the daughter of Caroline King, a fairly well to do real estate agent living in Houston, Texas. Unknown to her she is also the daughter of Dodge Hanley, a private investigator living in Atlanta.
Dodge has never been a part of his daughter’s life but a call from Caroline telling him their daughter is in trouble gets him on a plane to Houston quickly. There he finds that Oren Starks, a former co-worker of Berry’s, broke into her house and threatened her. He also shot and wounded another co-worker of Berry’s who was at her house. He then fled the scene of the crime.
At first the deputy in a town on the outskirts of Houston where Caroline has another home, and where Berry was working, is skeptical of Berry’s story. He finds it suspicious that Berry was in the shower at the time of the intrusion and that the man who was shot was in his underwear. Ski, as the deputy is called, suspects perhaps Berry is trying to hide a love affair in some way.
Caroline has introduced Dodge to Berry as a family friend but Dodge knows they can not keep the truth from her indefinitely. Berry is a bright girl and some of her mannerisms and traits are a lot like her father’s. It is just a matter of time until she finds out his relationship to her.
Brown also includes flashbacks to show Dodge and Caroline’s relationship thirty years ago. Dodge is so devoted to Berry and obviously still in love with Caroline that the reader is quite curious as to why they had a thirty year period of time when there was no contact between them.
It should also be noted that Dodge was introduced to Brown’s readers in her previous novel SMASH CUT. In the current novel he is employed in Atlanta by an attorney named Derek who is married to a woman named Julie. They were the lead characters in SMASH CUT.
Brown knows how to stretch out a story without losing any of the suspense and that is a real talent. Even the flashbacks are essential to the full enjoyment of the present story. Plus all of the characters in the book are interesting from Dodge and Caroline to Berry and Ski. They come alive on the pages and hopefully we will learn more about all of them in future stories from Brown.
If you are in the mood for a good thriller than you should get a copy of TOUGH CUSTOMER. It will give you hours of reading pleasure.
TOUGH CUSTOMER is published by Simon and Schuster. It contains 391 pages and sells for $26.99.